If you want Bernie to win, you need the center.

posted February 28, 2016

Bernie Sanders and I both attended Brooklyn College, a university founded as a free institution to help lower and middle class kids get an education. It wasn’t free by the time I went there, but for New York City residents it was pretty damn close.

Bernie champions things I’ve long been appalled we don’t have in this country. If you make the grades, you’re guaranteed a tuition-free education in most of Europe. Public funding for the arts is also phenomenal. Perhaps most importantly, Universal Healthcare is as much a given as clean drinking water. Although we are far wealthier than those countries, we view the education of our citizens as a privilege, the arts as an extravagance, and healthcare as a luxury.

When Bernie effectively says, “Bullshit!” to that, I’m right there with him. It’s total bullshit.

Actually, no. I’m not. Why? Because Donald Trump is all but a lock for the Republican nomination. An outspoken racist, sexist, and xenophobe who makes Hitler look like an amateur, is the clear Republican front-runner for POTUS. What does that tell you about the feelings in this country right now? It tells me a lot of people are pissed off.

What does that have to do with Bernie?

Despite loving Bernie, I’m increasingly unable to tell his most zealous supporters from Trump’s. They’re both angry, they’re both vocal, they’re both completely inhospitable to people who do not believe exactly as they do. It’s the second-biggest tragedy of this election year. I’m an undecided Democrat and even considering Hillary has earned me angry insults from some Bernie supporters.

If a liberal like me can get spooked by another liberal political campaign, how is Bernie going to get votes from the huge chunk of undecided voters who were hoping for a President Kasich or Rubio?

I don’t think they can. So as Tuesday approaches and the attacks on Clinton get nastier and nastier, I’m drawn to her, because I think only a stable candidate, whose supporters work towards the center, can get votes away from Donald in the general election.

You are an ambassador for your candidate

When you look at Trump’s supporters they’re in people’s faces, they attack people both verbally and physically. I know people who supported Trump early on, before he started insulting whole demographics as rapists and murderers, who have since moved away from him. Even bible-thumping Lindsey Graham said losing the White House to the Democrats would be favorable to Trump. When an outspoken member of the KKK supports your candidate I think plenty of people re-evaluate and say, “You know, I like that he speaks his mind, but I don’t want to hold hands with David Duke during the inauguration.” In short, you are as important as your candidate. If you behave badly, you don’t win votes, you lose them.

Your candidate is not an ass hole

Bernie is a total class act, and calls out Hillary for all the things she deserves to be called out on. I can’t think of many ways in which Hillary is a better candidate, but I’m not thinking about this Tuesday even half as much as November. Trump can not win this. In a historical context, all empires fall, and a President Trump might be the last Emperor of Rome. Nationally and Internationally a man who doesn’t give a damn what anyone else thinks, who never backs down, who isn’t afraid to insult everyone in the room? We might get to know what a land invasion feels like. He’s dangerous to everyone.

Bernie is better than that

So why are you treating your opponents in a way that’s inconsistent with your candidate? Bernie listens, he works with people with differing views, he’s passionate as hell, but he’s worked within the system for a long time. I get that you’re pissed, but you need my vote. You need a chunk of Rubio’s votes, and Kasich’s, and everyone else that drops out and leaves 2 candidates. When I hear a liberal person say they don’t see a difference between Hillary and Trump I want to cry, far more than I did in 2000 when Bush beat Gore.

We’ll see how things pan out this Tuesday and the coming weeks. I sincerely hope Bernie comes out on top, because he’s a better candidate. I don’t think many people supporting Hillary would vote Trump, but that may not be enough to win a general election.

Remember Reagan

Reagan quadrupled the national debt and screwed us in a lot of different ways, but if I were of voting age at the time I would have chosen him over Mondale. I would have been a registered Democrat and still would have acknowledged that Reagan, for all his quirks, was a better chance for all of us. I would not have been alone. Mondale was crushed in that election. There were plenty of Democrats who voted for Ronny.

The most zealous voters drive an election, but the center consistently wins it.